Mason-Lake DVD Project Assists Parents Entering the World of Special Education

by Richard Bourgault, Monitor, Mason-Lake ISD

Parents sailing into the sea of special education for the first time are sometimes overwhelmed with not only the stress of the moment, but with the mountains of terms and phrases common to the field. During the fall of 2004, an innovative idea was initiated to help these parents. Along with the help of the Mason-Lake ISD Parent Advisory Committee (PAC), the goal was to create a user-friendly format to help parents of students with special needs learn about the special education process. That format came in the form of a DVD.

Over the next two years, Mason-Lake ISE consulted with the Mason-Lake ISD PAC to develop and produce the DVD on a home computer. Considering the vast array of needs for all special education children between the ages of 0 and 26, the PAC recommended that the DVD focus content toward parents of students in kindergarten through high school. The project members decided to place special emphasis on students whose behavior and learning problems were not discovered until kindergarten and beyond.

The Mason-Lake DVD focuses on three major content areas:

1. The importance of parents and school staff working together to solve learning and behavior problems within the regular education realm, before considering the need for special education services.
2. The special education “referral” and “evaluation review” process to consider if regular education interventions and efforts are not effective for a given child.
3. The individualized education program (IEP) team process, including determination of eligibility for special education services. (For those students who are not found to be eligible for special education services, the DVD provides suggestions for parents and school staff to continue working on classroom accommodations and interventions. For those students found to be eligible, the DVD walks parents through the steps to develop an appropriate IEP.)

The parent DVD integrates the following messages:

1. Parents and school staff must work together in a cooperative effort to solve or help students deal with their learning and/or behavior struggles.
2. Empathy for parents is important, and parents are equal partners with school personnel.
3. Students with learning and behavior struggles can still graduate from high school and move on to productive lives through home/school collaborations.

The response to the project has been tremendous. Mason-Lake ISD has received requests for more information and/or a copy of the DVD from superintendents, university professors, parents of children with disabilities, and teachers from 25 different states. Praise for the project includes this comment from a University of Nebraska at Omaha professor, “…I have never seen another video production, including those from much larger school systems, so well crafted.”

The PAC presented its DVD project at the annual Michigan Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Conference in Grand Rapids last February. In April, the DVD project won a Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB) 2007 Education Excellence Award, which noted the uniqueness of having parents involved in such a collaborative effort. Project members currently are working on a more generic version of the DVD, making it more accessible to districts throughout the state.

Following the success of the DVD, the Mason-Lake ISD and local PAC were awarded a grant to develop a second DVD on “Transition From School to Work” for students receiving special education services. The local Community Mental Health Agency and ISD Transition Council have joined together to create the new DVD, expected in the summer of 2008.

For more information, contact: Richard Bourgault, Monitor, Mason-Lake ISD, (231) 757-3716 ext. 159, rbourgault@mlisd.k12.mi.us.